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Ghana Police Condemned for Storming A Radio Station

Last Updated: November 01, 2009 10:39 AM

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Ghana Police Condemned for Storming A Radio Station

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Ghana's police are coming under intense criticism after some
policemen stormed into "Radio Gold," an independent radio station in the
capital, Accra, and arrested the financial comptroller. This comes after police
claim they received a tipoff of an ongoing-armed robbery on the station
premises in the early hours of Tuesday morning. But the radio station dismissed
the police assertion as bogus and without merit, accusing police of what it
described as "unnecessary use of brute force" after some workers were severely
beaten The financial comptroller was finally arrested.

Some political analysts
are worried that a group of law enforcement officials are tarnishing the
reputation of the organization. Roland Acquah-Steven is the head of the news
division of Radio Gold. From the capital, Accra, he tells reporter Peter
Clottey that the police acted unprofessionally.

"What
really happened this morning is that about 15 or so minutes to the end of the
morning show, some residents of the Ablekuma north constituency in the Greater
Accra region, affected a citizens arrest of an activist of the ruling New
Patriotic Party (NPP) who they suspected was engaged in electoral malpractice
or fraud for that matter. Apparently, they had already gone to the police
station to launch a complaint, but they brought him to the radio station so as
Ghanaians would hear exactly what had transpired in that particular
registration center at Ablekuma north constituency," Acquah-Steven pointed out.

He
said the policemen forced their way to the radio station, assaulted workers,
and arrested the station's financial controller.

"Unbeknownst
to us, somebody had alerted the police authority. So, the police people drove
in here and it was a scene to behold. When they got down from their vehicle,
they started beating people. But while I was in the studio, some of my
colleagues barged into the studio and said Fred has been arrested. And I said
which of the Fred's have been arrested, since we have two Freds here. And they
said it was Fred Ayensu the accountant or the financial comptroller for that
matter," he said.

Acquah-Steven
said the police charged and released the financial comptroller for obstructing
police work.

"As
we speak, Fred Ayensu was released earlier in the day, and the charged
preferred against him was obstructing their work. And he has been granted bail.
But we were taken aback and as a station, we have not decided yet what to do
specifically in line with this arrest," Acquah-Steven noted.

He
said the police acted unprofessionally, in what the station described as an
affront to the sensibilities of Ghanaians.

"The
point is when law enforcement officers do come to your premises, obviously
since they are officers of the law, you don't expect them to come in and
misbehave or act unprofessionally. So for us, our doors would always be open to
the police and we would always welcome them with our arms wide open because
they are law enforcers. But we expect that they will treat us with civility and
act professionally as expected of police officers," he said.

Acquah-Steven
condemned the action of the police as highly unfortunate.

"What
we are expecting from the police is to do what is right. They had information
which was not credible and acted wrongly and illegally because they illegally
entered our premises to do what they did, arresting the financial comptroller.
So you expect that as professional law enforcement agency they would do what is
right. First and most significantly, they will apologize and then rectify the
wrong they have occasioned to our station, and then we take it from there,"
Acquah-Steven pointed out.